ed at this period in the famous dispute
between the government and the court of Rome over the question of the
right of _regale_, a dispute which nearly brought about a schism. The
Archbishop of Paris, Mgr. de Harlay, who had laboured so much when he
was Bishop of Rouen to keep New France under the jurisdiction of the
diocese of Normandy, used his influence to make Canada dependent on the
archbishopric of Paris. The death of this prelate put an end to this
claim, and the French colony in North America continued its direct
connection with the Holy See.

Mgr. de Laval strove also to obtain from the Holy Father the canonical
union of the abbeys of Maubec and of Lestrees with his bishopric; if he
had obtained it, he could have erected his chapter at once, assuring by
the revenues of these monasteries a sufficient maintenance for his
canons. The opposition of the religious orders on which these abbeys
depended defeated his plan, but in compensation he obtained from the
generosity of the king a grant of land on which his successor,
Saint-Vallier, afterwards erected the church of Notre-Dame des
Victoires. The venerable prelate might well ask favours for his diocese
when he himself set an example of the greatest generosity. By a deed,
dated at Paris, he gave to his seminary all that he possessed: Ile
Jesus, the seigniories of Beaupre and Petite Nation, a property at
Chateau Richer, finally books, furniture, funds, and all that might
belong to him at the moment of his death.

Laval returned to Canada at a time when the relations with the savage
tribes were becoming so strained as to threaten an impending rupture. So
far had matters gone that Colonel Thomas Dongan, governor of New York,
had urged the Iroquois to dig up the hatchet, and he was only too
willingly obeyed. Unfortunately, the two governing heads of the colony
were replaced just at that moment. Governor de Frontenac and
Commissioner Duchesneau were recalled in 1682, and supplanted by de la
Barre and de Meulles. The latter were far from equalling their
predecessors. M. de Lefebvre de la Barre was a clever sailor but a
deplorable administrator; as for the commissioner, M. de Meulles, his
incapacity did not lessen his extreme conceit.

On his arrival at Quebec, Laval learned with deep grief that a terrible
conflagration had, a few weeks before, consumed almost the whole of the
Lower Town. The houses, and even the stores being then built of wood,
everything was devoured